Gingerfruit gives old Mecca spot another go

Tonight marks the opening of Gingerfruit, the new restaurant in the Market Street space that most famously housed Mecca and most recently housed the very short-lived Pudong.

Gingerfruit calls itself an Asian fusion tapas restaurant with Mediterranean flairs. The owner is the same as Pudong, former Hong Kong restaurateur Francis Tsai, but the rest of the staff has turned over. And of course, the name has changed from its previous incarnation.

(“I believe the community didn’t receive the name very well,” says GM Henry Lamb of Pudong.)

The spacious 130-seat interior remains largely the same, and new chef Shawn Baraboo has worked at places like Sudachi and Leopold’s. He says the menu (click here to view) takes influences from southeast Asia, Japanese izakayas and Spanish tapas joints. There’s a whole section of vegetarian tapas, too. Of course, Baraboo says that the restaurant is trying to pull the bar crowd, too; it’s a big space after all.

Happy hour runs from 4pm to 7pm and features $4 cocktails. Open Wednesday-Sunday, 4pm to 1am.